We would like to offer to the attention of the readers another work by Dmitri Khazanov, dedicated to Air Forces actions during the Battle of Moscow 1941-1942. His previous book on the defensive period of the battle attracted a lot of attention from both historians and general public. But especially interesting (or even better to say: moving), it turned out to be for the veterans of the WWII among whom, there are still the participants of that battle.
During the narrative on the development of the Soviet counter-offensive at Moscow, the author again brings along a lot of unknown facts, and the well publicized ones are presented from the new and more objective point of view due to the usage of large amount of new materials. Reading this reserch, one can recall a lot of he has heard or witnessed earlier, and relive those heroic and tragic events.
It is very important that in "Unknown Battle in Moscow Skies, 1941-1942" the author gives comparative analyses of the data from different German and Soviet sources, in particular regarding the losses and failures. In my opinion, this allows to maximally approach the truth in the evaluation of the events.
On the basis of the Soviet and German documents of the time, and using the eyewitnesses' accounts, the author managed to paint a vivid picture of the Red Army's counter-offensive at Moscow not only in the skies, but also on the ground. It is very nice that on the background of the huge battle the
author speaks about the lives of the participants of the events from the Soviet and German sides.
The fact that the victory at the walls of the capital passed beyond the boundaries of just militarry success and became a very important political event is very well represented in the book. The crash of Blitzkrieg strategy put the Third Reich in front of the lengthy war for attrition.
At the same time the author has not forgotten about some failures of Soviet troops, has shown the causes that had not allowed to completely defeat the enemy during the winter months of 1941-1942 as it was planned by the Soviet political and military leadership.
Nevertheless, Red Army managed to push back the enemy from the walls of Moscow to the distance of 700-250 km and destroy the myth of invincibility of the German army.